Once I found out a lot of the so called traditions were only made up less than 50 years ago I stopped putting any stock in them at all. And for a lot of traditions once you start looking in to them, they were made up to sell stuff.
And the ones that are older have been heavily modified. Even what we think of as old traditions are usually remarkably new in how they're done, even if the concept has been around for generations.
When people want "traditional [thing]", what they usually mean is "I want it like it was when I was a teenager".
Even Santa Claus coming down the chimney to give presents to children got its real start with St. Nicholas sneaking into people's houses in Constantinople to leave bags of gold so the parents wouldn't have to sell their children into slavery.